June 11, 2011
At 18 years old, Fitriasih has already been married 11 times in the past eight months, each time to a different Arab man.
But ask her what’s behind this almost sinister track record, and the slender teenager will tell you that it’s purely business — a trade she was driven to out of poverty and desperation.
Fitriasih is one of a handful of women engaged in contract marriages, where Muslim men pay to take on new brides for a short period before divorcing them.
The common-law marriage, or nikah siri , is recognized under Islamic statutes but not under state law. This means the wife has no legal claim to her husband’s wealth or property after they end the marriage.
Such unregistered marriages are abused by men who want to have sex outside of their first marriage but who do not want the legal responsibilities that come with being a husband, according to experts.
The practice is also used by Indonesian men who want to engage in polygamy but fail to secure the agreement of their first wife, according to Maria Ulfa Anshori, head of the women’s wing of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Muslim group.
Before she was arrested on Wednesday during a prostitution raid by authorities in Puncak, Fitriasih was making good money marrying and divorcing Middle Eastern men with the help of a pimp she called Mami.
The marriages typically last between a week to five weeks and Fitriansih receives Rp 5 million ($590) a week for her “wifely duties.” Of this amount, 20 percent goes to Mami, who handles bidding and negotiations.
“I do have a pimp. She guides me,” Fitriansih said on Thursday while detained at the Cisarua subdistrict office in West Java for questioning.
Fitriasih’s last assignment, she said, was to wait for a “camel” — a term her pimp used for Arab clients — at Tjokro Villas in Ciburial village near Bandung.
As these transactions go, she said, she was supposed to have married the Arab in a ceremony presided over by a Muslim cleric chosen by Mami.
“I just repeat the cleric’s words. It’s the ijab kabul [exchange of vows],” Fitriasih said. “I don’t know where the clerics come from. I just arrive at the destination pointed out by my Mami. The ritual is normally held in a villa or an apartment where the Arab guest stays at.
“These rituals are usually held in Jakarta,” she added. “Once the marriage is done, we head straight to Puncak.
“In order to communicate well with the man, I can speak a bit of English and Arabic,” she said. “I learned them myself because Mami asked me to.”
But Fitriansih, a native of Cijantung in East Ja k arta, said serial marriages had not always been her work of choice.
After dropping out from school almost a year ago due to financial troubles, she worked as a sales promotion girl to help her parents make ends meet. She quit after two months due to low pay.
Shortly after, a friend named Shinta introduced her to Mami, who promised that she would make a fortune.
Despite its many pitfalls, Fitriansih said she had no regrets about joining the shady trade, though she kept it a secret from her parents. “They think I’m a tour guide,” she said. “I don’t regret what I do at all. I was able to help my [family]. They need me and I can help them.
(x the JG)
vr 10 jun 2011 - 23:39